The present invention relates to the production of oxygenated fuels. Specifically, the invention relates to a process for the production of an oxygenated fuel composition comprising isopropanol and gasoline in which isopropanol from an aqueous solution is simultaneously extracted from solution and blended with a gasoline blending hydrocarbon component.
There is a great need to produce high octane gasoline. However, the use of the traditional lead-containing gasoline additives has been largely discontinued. Moreover, refineries have experienced a shortage of isoparaffins, particularly isobutane which are generally reacted with excess olefins to produce alkylate, a high octane gasoline additive.
Oxygenated compounds such as ethanol, isopropanol and methyl-t-butyl ether are high octane components that are now finding their way into the motor gasoline pool. In making alcohols by the hydration of olefins, the raw product from the reactor generally contains a substantial quantity of water in addition to the alcohol. Dehydrating the aqueous alcoholic solution has heretofore required energy intensive procedures, such as extractive distillation or azeotropic distillation.
The present invention provides an economical method for dehydrating an aqueous alcoholic solution of isopropanol which does not require any of the energy intensive extraction or distillation procedures.